The Juna Women Podcast is a weekly discussion where Juna Founder, Sarah Kuhn, talks to Moms about their health, work, parenting, and all the different ways they’re keeping it together.

This is Episode 012, Things Your Mom Never Told You About Labor with Liesel Teen, Labor and Delivery Registered Nurse.

In this special labor and delivery podcast, Sarah talks to @Mommy.LaborNurse, aka Liesel Teen, an RN for 5 years, specifically in Labor & Delivery for more than 3 years. Birth is something Liesel has always been passionate about.

She created her online platform – Mommy Labor Nurse – to help expecting Moms navigate the complicated path to Labor & Delivery.

In the episode Liesel and Sarah get into the nitty gritty of labor and delivery, touching on a number of topics including:

– pooping during labor
– episiotomies and tearing
– how painful labor REALLY is
– orgasmic births
– the phases of labor, including when to go to the hospital
– epidurals
– recovering after c-section / vaginal births
– what to do if sex is painful after you have a baby

This episode is packed with all the things your Mom never told you about giving birth.

Show Notes

01:45 – Liesel shares her path to Motherhood, including conception, a “bloody” scare” at 13 weeks.

12:51 – What it’s like to prepare for labor as a Labor and Delivery Nurse. Having seen some pretty crazy things happen during labor, it sometimes makes her pretty anxious when thinking about her own labor.

16:34 – The path to becoming Mommy Labor Nurse – an incredible resource on Instagram. Liesel shares how it was hard to be back at after just 3 months off maternity leave. When her son was about 8 months old she decided to start a blog in hopes to make more money from home and offset some of her income so she could work less hours as a LDN. She took an Instagram course and came up with the idea to become Mommy Labor Nurse.

25:25 – What are the most common themes / questions you receive as Mommy Labor Nurse? Pooping during labor. Tearing during labor. Lots of first time Moms wanna know what the pain level is, when to go to hospital. A lot of questions about epidurals – when to get them. A lot about milk supply and breastfeeding.

26:33 – Pooping during labor. Most women do, and it’s not a lot, but it does happen. It’s not really something to worry about.

29:15 – What is an episiotomy? They are becoming more rare. Becoming something nurses and doctors are trying to phase out. Just like forceps and vacuum, they are going away.

36:11 – Orgasmic birth. It can happen. There’s a book called Gaskins Guide To Childbirth and she says one thing she’s never seen a Mom experience vaginal tearing during an orgasmic birth. Unfortunately there’s no secret or way to help this happen, but some women do experience it. Maybe you’ll be one of the lucky ones.

37:29 – How bad does labor hurt? It hurts. A lot.

38:46 – When to go to the hospital? How da you know when you’re in labor? Most people know, it’s pretty instinctual. If you have to ask if you’re in labor, you’re probably not, or it’s at least very early labor. A lot of people go by 411 rule.

What’s the 411 rule? It’s when your contractions are 4 minutes apart, continue for more than 1 hour, and last at least 1 minute in intensity. I like to tell people to come to the hospital when things start to get intense – when it hurts to move around, start feeling nauseous or sweating more than normal.

4202: What do if your water breaks. For most women, this is definitely a sign to go to the hospital. It’s also more common for your water to break once you are at the hospital and sometimes the nurses or doctors will break your water for you.

44:53 – Preparing for a vaginal birth? What do you recommend? Number 1 piece of advice is just continue to think about how you envision your birth to go, whether you want natural or not, or delivery at a birth center or if you want rose petals around a bed — however you see it happening. Make sure you’re on the same page with OBGYN. You don’t want to be a natural, granola Mom with a very medical heavy hospital. If you have the choice, make sure you’re aligned. I love birth stories. You should listen to birth stories (we have lots on the Juna Women podcast. Talk to your friends and family about their birth stories. The more you know, the less scared you be.

47:30 – Recovery for both kinds of birth – vaginal or c-section. They talk about the the different phases of recovery and what to do if you are experiencing pain during sex after having a baby.

55:18 – Liesel recommends The Birth Hour podcast and Take Control of Your Life by Mel Robbins – audiobook.

Take Control of Your Life by Mel Robbins. You can buy it here on Audible/Amazon.